In this week’s report, USDA lowered the national corn condition rating by one more point - bringing it down to 54 percent in the combined good to excellent categories. In the I-80 Corridor, Nebraska again led the decline as it lopped off another three points this week - leaving only 39 percent of its crop now in good to excellent condition. On the other end of the Corridor, Ohio trimmed two points from its rating. Outside the corridor, Colorado went down by five points and Kansas sank by four while Tennessee drifted lower by three. Missouri and South Dakota both improved by three percentage points this week. The standout was Pennsylvania which supposedly improved by 10 points, but I will point out that it appears to be a clerical glitch in its reporting because last week it went down by the same 10 points.
The national soybean condition rating remained unchanged this week at 57 percent good to excellent. In the I-80 Corridor, Nebraska saw a three point decline while Illinois reported a two point loss. Outside the Corridor, Louisiana took it on the chin from the intense flooding last week, so its rating came down by eight points. Arkansas dropped five points while Kansas and Wisconsin both reported a four point decline. Oddly enough, Louisiana’s next door neighbor, Mississippi, showed a seven point improvement in its condition. Kentucky improved by four points.
Cotton condition nationwide came back up three points to put it right back where it was two weeks ago at 34 percent good to excellent. Among the top five producing states, Texas showed a four point improvement. However, it still only has 15 percent making the good to excellent grade. Over half of the state’s crop continues to be poor to very poor. North Carolina’s cotton rating bounced upward by three points. Among the other states, Arizona posted a strong gain of seven points thanks to recent monsoon activity. South Carolina added six points and Kansas came upward by five. Louisiana and Tennessee both reported large nine point declines in their ratings.
Grain sorghum (milo) condition nationwide came down by four more points this week to land at only 21 percent good to excellent while the national poor to very poor rating now stands at 44 percent. Oklahoma reported a huge drop of nine points in its rating. South Dakota went down by eight points since last week and Kansas came down by seven.
USDA released its first grain sorghum harvest report for the year and it showed that 18 percent of the nation’s crop is now harvested - ALL of it because of Texas which already has 62 percent of its crop out of the field. None of the other major producing states have started harvesting yet.
Rice condition across the nation slid lower by two points this week - putting the rating at 70 percent good to excellent. Arkansas reported the largest decline of five points this week while Mississippi posted a five point improvement. All of the other key producing states held steady on their condition ratings.
Rice harvest nationwide moved up to 18 percent completion where it now lags the five-year average by three points. Texas still shows the most harvest progress with 77 percent taken out while Louisiana is 67 percent done. It’s noteworthy that Mississippi would normally have 14 percent of its acres harvested by now, but as of Sunday, it had only reached four percent completion.
Peanut condition nationwide held steady at 69 percent good to excellent this week. Florida rang the bell with the biggest improvement of 11 points. North Carolina showed a four point improvement. On the negative side, Alabama reported a four point decline in its crop conditions while Georgia slid two points lower.
Spring wheat harvest made up quite a bit of ground this week to reach 50 percent completion nationwide, but it still trails the national average pace by 21 points. South Dakota is coming down the home stretch with 92 percent of its crop now harvested. Idaho, Montana, and Washington state all posted more than 20 point gains in their harvest progress.
Pasture conditions finally rebounded in Texas for the first time in what seems like forever as its good to excellent rating came back up by seven points. However, that still leaves 69 percent in the poor to very poor category. Nebraska reported a three point improvement, but it still dwells in the cellar of ratings at only seven percent good to excellent along with Oklahoma. In the Southwest, New Mexico took advantage of a terrific monsoon season which boosted its pasture rating by another eight points this week.
In the topsoil moisture deficit category (generally considered to measure the top four inches of soil representing the seed planting and sprouting zone), Nebraska leapt to a tie for the top spot as it reported 81 percent of its topsoil short to very short on moisture - the same as Wyoming. Kansas saw a three point expansion in its short to very short category. Meanwhile, Oklahoma actually reported a seven point improvement in moisture conditions and Montana came up by five. It’s noteworthy that Texas completely dropped out of the top seven driest states following the flooding rains in many areas last week.
In the subsoil moisture deficit category (considered to measure deep soil moisture down to a few feet where the crop roots would extend downward), Wyoming holds onto the driest rating of 87 percent moisture deficit. Despite have a five point improvement from last week, Montana hangs on to second place with 82 percent. Oklahoma improved by three points to put it in a tie with Kansas at 81 percent. The heavy rains in Texas last week definitely helped much of the cropland in the northern half of the state as it saw a seven point reduction in its deficit number.
